THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 6, 16 April 1842, Page 22

THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

Our readers have seen in our last a copy of the Governor's Speech, delivered at the cloie of the session. His Excellency informs the Council " that the Statute Book of New Zealand for the- present year contains a more important code of laws than was ever passed by any colonial Legislature during a single session." We should have been better pleased to have seen the code of laws first, so as to be able to judge how far the congratulatory tone of this speech may be adopted by the colonists in general. It is to be hoped, at all events, that they will discover some cause of self-gratulation where the Governor and Council have evidently found so much. In the mean time, we must wait patiently until it shall please those whom it may concern to remember that a code of laws wholly unknown to those for whose government they are intended, can be but of little use, however admirable in principle or perfect in detail. The bills mentioned in this speech are the Police Magistrates Bill, the Conveyancing 1 and Registration Bills, the Municipal Corporations Bill, and the two Land Claims Bills. A better opportunity will offer to discuss all these measures when we have seen them. We proceed at once to remark on a most perverse misrepresentation, which has been persevered in for some time at Auckland, and which is now adopted as a matter of course, as it we're, by the Governor himself. We have heard of men repeating things which they originally knew to be false, until they come, by constant repetition, conscientiously to believe themselves. We suppose that it is so in the case in question, when his Excellency, after mentioning the Municipal Corporations Bill, proceeds to address a sympathizing Council in the following words :—: — " That the opposition which this measure met with in its most popular principles, during its progress through the Council, should have been led by one who was selected as representing the colonists of the New Zealand Company's principal settlements, a body of people bringing with them in all its freshness, unimpaired, the English love of liberty, may well form a subject of astonishment and regret." The thing is so absurd, so evidently untrue, that it would not be worth contradicting, if the perseverance in it, and the authority which a Governor's Speech necessarily carries with it, did not render it possible that some may be taken in. Governor Hobson, when at Port Nicholson in September last, certainly selected Mr. Earp as a fitting person to advise with him and the official members of the Council, aud to join them in their legislative labours. It is just possible that Governor Hobson persuaded himself that his own discrimination was such as to ensure the selection he made being the same as would have been made by the 'majority of the inhabitants ; it is just possible that this persuasion now exists in Ms mind ; but we think that he would find considerable difficulty in pereuading any one else into so high an opinion of his powers, morejsspeciaHy when it is reV- •

membered what were the feelings expressed by him With regard to the settlers at Port Nicholson not long previous to his visit, and the unquestionable differences of opinion that have ever been apparent between the majority of those settlers and his Excellency. Whatever respect may be due to Mr. Earp.'s opinion as that of an individual, whatever justness there may be in his views on the various subjects brought under the consideration of the Legislative Council, nothing is more certain than that those opinions, those views, are not in accordance with those of the majority of the colonists of the " Company's principal settlement," nor even with those of a considerable minority. We believe the fact to be, that his Excellency has made a mistake; that it was not intended to select any one who would really represent the opinions of those colonists ; and that, finding this mistake, and the unpleasant results of it in Mr. Earp's opposition to the measures proposed, it is now endeavoured to make that opposition appear the act of those of whom Mr. Earp is called the representative. The arbitrary measure adopted in removing Mr. Earp's name from among the three senior justices of the peace to a different situation on the list, shows this feeling tq exist most clearly ; but, let the reasons, the objects of the Governor, both for selecting and displacing; Mr. Earp, be what they may, one thing i? certain, that it becomes all colonists of the Company's settlements to disclaim at once the existence of any such relation as that 01, constituents and representative between themselves and Mr. Earp, not now because ihey may differ with him in opinion, 6ut because it is not true that any such relation ever existed, and because there is every reason to believe that it nevjer was the intention of those who now imply it, that it should exist, but only that it should appear, to do so ; and because it is an absolute injustice, of a most serious description, so to misrepresent the opinions of a community to serve the purposes of a political clique.

In the Sydney Herald of the Bth o^ March we find one of the usual denunciations of New Zealand in general, and the Company's settlements in particular. It is in the form of a letter from a Mr. Thorpe, who dates from the Thames, and appears, as far as we can gather, to be himself a settler in the country which he attempts to describe. His communication contains such a strange mixture of truth with falsehood, that any impartial person might be at first inclined to give him credit for candour and accuracy. It would be tedious to refut« each inisstatement, woven into the tangled web with which Mr. Thorpe has adorned two columns and a half of the Sydney Herald ; but we must submit to our readers a few of the most glaring untruths which he has prepared for the taste of the New South Wales public. After telling us that, " in England, New Zealand signifies Poet Nicholson and the Company's land adjacent," Mr. Thorpe gives an estimate of the population, and proceeds to record his own opinion, that " the situation of Auckland is far before Port Nicholson, though an indifferent seaport." The following extract from his letter will, we think, be sufficient to prove that he had never been at the pains to visit both places before comparing them. Anxious to emulate the spirit which animated his Excellency when writing some of his earlier despatches to the Colonial Secretary, he says :—: — " Port Nic, as the natives call it, is. surrounded by abrupt hills, perhaps five or jen acres of level land being scattered in petty parcels round the coast. • ♦ • '] he passage to this port, or open sea, is flanked by reefs, and the wind is often so violent as to render three anchors necessary to hold a ship. The coast adjoining the cities called Britannia, Thonhlon, or Wellington, is shoally, and vessels lay off half a mile." Then comes a description of the population of Port Nicholson, an excellent specimen of the mixture of truth and falsehood with which we have charged Mr. Thorpe :—: — " Ships continue to be taken up and sent from England to this place with emigrants of variouß sorts, some refugees of parishes, which are for the most part an idle set; a few rural labourers ; an undue proportion of petty shopkeepers; some settlers of enterprise and talent, and a sprinkling of your gentlemen adventurers who gamble in billiards and land." Perhaps in no British colony has there been less land-gambling than in Wellington ; and there is not a billiard- table in Cook's Straits. The next paragraph will still better exemplify the manner in which he manages to

depreciate the neighbourhood of Cook's Straits, while keeping near enough to facts to give his account a specious appearance :—: — . y " A road is now forming about fourteen miles long, to get at some available country, there being hitherto but one solitary piece of cultivation to supply five or six thousand mouths. A number of people have left, some to Cloudy Bay, on the south side of Cook's Straits, and others to different parts of New Zealand or to Sydney. More recently another company have located an extensive tract of level lana near Mount Egmont, called Taranaki, where there is some progress made in cultivation. From the glimpse I had of t, the scenery is attractive, the lofty eeak of Mount Egmont rising at once from the pWw, like the Alps from the vale of Lorn bar dy. The port, if it can be called one, is only a roadstead ; and indeed there is no port on the west coast without a dangerous bar at the entrance." So that, according to Mr. Thorpe, the valley of the Hutt and the town of Wellington comprise but five or ten acres of level land ; Lambton Harbour, where vessels of 70 tons lie alongside a wharf ten yards from the beach, is an open sea, with a shoally coast ; the population a heterogeneous assemblage of bad materials ; there is no laud fit for cultivation within fourteen miles ; and, from a glimpse of Mount Egmont, he decides that nothing good can be said of New Plymouth, which contains a population of nearly 600 souls, excepting that " the scenery is attractive." A few grujnbling deserters are magnified into a number ot people, and the veracious observer forgets to state that the*"* greater part of these were induced by the promises and persuasions of Captain Hobsott and his followers to swell the population of Auckland. As to the latter place, we quote his own woids : — » " Wy-te-matta, or Auckland, as the new metropolis adjoining the Thames is called, is on an open slope, with little fresh water, and no wood for either fuel or building within -miles : ships are obliged to anchor a long way off, and cannot approach the shore at low water within a quarter of a mile." Without any further reason for the vast superiority of Auckland over Wellington, he next enters upon a complaint against the way in which the former town has been laid out. He then complains of the price ,of land, and asks whether " there is any land of a newly-formed colony in any part of the globe worth more than five shillings an acre V Let him go and see what rents are willingly paid in Wellington and its^ neighbourhood, by bona fide settlers, who are aware that it is worth a great deal more. Let him ask any one of the persons who have gathered a crop from the valley of the Hutt, how much their land is worth. Let him come here in a few months hence ; let him go to any of the settlements to which labourers are sent by means of the high' price paid for land ; and he will not fail to acknowledge that, while we are secure of a supply of labour, the land will always be worth at least what is now given for it. Without stopping to notice the numerous fallacies into which Mr. Thorpe falls, while attempting to preach political economy, we will extract two consistent declarations on that subject, and then conclude with one or two more of his facts :—: — " New Zealand has been colonized with premature despatch." " A colony prospers according as it is quickly covered with people and with cattle." We are next assured that " Above half of New Zealand is mountain, , one entire scene of rugged volcanic distortion ; perhaps nearly one-fourth is swampy, and onefourth plain or available land." North of Auckland, there is but a narrow strip of country, which contains, however, some plain or available land ; as at Waimate, Hokianga, and Knipara, But in the larger portion, south of Auckland, the valley of the Thames — the grass plains on the banks of the Waipa and Waikato rivers — the whole country between the Bay of Plenty and Lake Taupo, together with the prairie which stretches from three sides of that lake — the broad belt of fertile and level country which reaches from near Mokau on the west coast to the island of Kapiti in Cook's Straits — the valleys of the Hutt and Wainerapa, and an extensive tract of plains reaching from Hawke's Bay to the source of the Manewatu river, must be held to include at least three-fourths 'of the North Island, if not a much larger proportion. Numerous accounts combine to describe very extensive tracts of level and available land in this island also : but Mr. Thorpe seems to have considered the Middle Island as perfectly unimportant. Doubtless, had he known of the foundation of Nelson, he would have swelled his catalogue of facts with statements which it would have been our more immediate province to repel : but we have noticed his paper, both because he has entered into the almost worn-out profession of calumniating a settlement, which we feel bound to regard with brotherly

emulation, and because he writes in a spirit unjustly depreciatory of the whole country which we have chosen for our home.

The Town Sections have been distributed. The selection commenced on Monday and closed yesterday. On the first day the choices were ■ generally directed towards the Haven, with a view to secure beach frontages. The first section chosen is marked number 1 1 on the Surveyor's Plan. It is this acre on which the i Company's offices and the Hospital for the Immigrants are erected. Among the early se- ! lections were the acre in which the coal-seam has been found, two of the sections on Fifeshire Isl|nd, and the range of acres exteuding along l\rG> Beach. We were glad to find that the - native reserves included some of the most valuable sections. The Maouries are landlords of nearly the whole of Auckland Flat. On the second day the tendency of choice was towards the present centre of the town, and all the sections in the neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square were eagerly sought after. The acres i /the wood appeared to be next in the order of appreciation. Here the Maouri choices were again accordingly most valuable. On the third day Ihe interest in the business had probably subsided, and the remainder .of the choices was more equalized. The acres ranging .nlong the little valley, known at present by the ominous and somewhat ill-selected name of the Poisoned Valley, were among the ear^st^elections. Of course the labouring poi/jdiation will be attracted towards that direction, for the sake of the capability it affords for garden-ground. On the.' fourth day there was less competition, porner sections in the 'Towai-towai valley were first chosen ; and afterwards the tendency of choice was towards the little valleys on the right of the Waityoa Road, near- .Hampden Terrace and Emahu Street. The attendance during the ' greater part of each day was numerous. The ' interest excited was naturally very great. We ■ rejoice especially at the excellent choices which 1 Mr. Thompson and the Principal Surveyor have made for the aborigines ; and we shall not lose sight of the question in what manner the funds which must shortly be raised from their lands ought to be applied. We trust that the Suburban Sections will now be surveyed with all possible despatch ; and we confidently expect that the -settlement of Nelson will henceforth progress with increased energy, now that individual interest is necessarily identified with the common weal.

The Public Meeting called by the committee appointed on board the Mary Anne, to frame the regulations of the " Nelson Benefit Society," will be held in front of the office of this paper, <:his afternoon at half-past three. /

We have received papers from England to the 11th of December. There is little news of importance. — The Queen and infant Prince were going on well. — The Queen Dowager was recovering. — A meeting had been called in the City for the purpose of getting up an address to the Government on the subject of Emigiation. The lord mayor, in declining to preside, stated that the Government were maturing a plan of emigration, and he thought it therefore unnecessary to interfere until that plan had been made public. — Floods caused by the unusual rain have been almost universal, throughout the United Kingdom.

Papers from India to the ISth of December ; contain news of some interest, but we have no room for extracts this week.

This morning there is a barque in sight to the N.W., bsating into the gulf. Copies of the protest drawn up by the gentlemen named at the public meeting held to consider the conviction of -William Murray, will lie for signature at Miller's Tavern and at the Printing Office. The Bolton, Clifton, Birman, and Lloyds, sailed on Friday the 15th, in company, for the Indian seas by way of Torres Straits. A salute was fired from the Haven, upon such a convoy leaving a port which was not known to exist six months ago.